Heretofore a number of prior art liquid distributors have been developed and used to distribute liquid at low flow rates over a packed bed of media in a liquid/gas contact tower.
One such distributor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,769 provides continuous uniform distribution of liquid in numerous small streams approximately 8 points per ft.sup.2 (86.11 pts/m.sup.2) and at relatively low rates as low as 0.3 GPM/ft.sup.2 (0.733 m.sup.3 /(hr.m.sup.2)) of the cross sectional area of the tower chamber without causing unstable operation, entrainment of the gas and reducing the free gas space to much less than 50% of the cross section area of the tower chamber.
Also, a number of liquid distributors disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 930,936; 3,916,020; 3,006,623; 3,011,723; 3,290,025; and 4,159,291 have either elongated or circular receptacles or troughs with weirs and a large number of drip elements, strips or fingers of various form projecting therefrom.
However, the prior art of which the Applicants are aware fail to suggest a liquid distributor or redistributor of any type or cross sectional configuration provided with a liquid distribution drip plate closely spaced from a side wall thereof that effectively spreads small streams of low liquid flow directed against it, horizontally into a uniform thin layer and distributes the downwardly flowing thin layer of liquid uniformly over a portion of the tower chamber.
In general the Applicants' distributor has the following desirable features:
1. A low flow range of 0.1 to 2 GPM/FT.sup.2 (0.244 to 4.890 m.sup.3 /(hr.m.sup.2)) with ratios of the highest to lowest permissable flow rates of up to 4 to 1 or more in a given design. PA0 2. Substantially non-fouling. PA0 3. Handles liquid viscosities of up to 30 centistokes or more. PA0 4. Provides a low pressure drop to gas flowing (counter-currently to the liquid) past and through the distributor. PA0 5. Collects and distributes liquid uniformly when fed from a suitable feed pipe and/or from liquid raining downwardly, uniformly or non-uniformly, from above. PA0 6. Provides at least twelve (12) distribution points per square foot (129 points/m.sup.2) of the cross sectional area of the tower chamber.